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The Wars of Italian Independence were three wars fought between Italian states and the Austrian Empire between 1848 and 1866,
ending with the conquest of the entire Italian peninsula. An
important aspect of Italian unification
(Risorgimento), related minor conflicts and campaigns
(such as the campaigns of the 1860s) are usually considered part of
the Wars of Italian Independence.

Contents

The
First Independence War

In 1848, revolutionary riots broke out in numerous places of
Italy, as well in many other parts of Europe. Charles Albert in Piedmont and Leopold II in the Grand
Duchy of Tuscany had been forced to make concessions to the
democrats. When Vienna was
also in revolt, both Milan and
Venice, the main cities of the
Kingdom of
Lombardy-Venetia under Austrian rule, revolted. Sicily, apart
Messina, expelled the Bourbon armies. Charles II of Bourbon also
was compelled to leave the Duchy of Parma.

The Piedmontese army was composed of two corps and a reserve
division, for a total of 12,000 troops. Artillery and cavalry were
the best units. On March 21 the Grand Duke of Tuscany also declared
his entrance in the war against Austria, with a contingent of 6,700
men. The Papal Army had a similar sized force, backed by numerous
volunteers. On 25 the vanguard of the II Piedmontese Corps entered
Milan; two days later Pavia was
also freed.

After an initial successful campaign, with the victories at Goito and Peschiera del Garda, Pope Pius IX, fearing
possible expansions of Piedmont in case of victory, recalled his
troops. The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies also retired, but the
general Guglielmo
Pepe refused to go back to Naples and went to Venice to protect it against the Austrian
counter-offensive. King Ferdinand
II's behavior was mainly due to the ambiguous conduct of Charles Albert of Piedmont, who had not
clearly refused the proposal to obtain the Sicilian crown received
from representatives of the rebellious island.

The aftermath of the war was complex, but in general saw a
return to the pre-existing status quo. In 1849 in Florence, Leopold II
abandoned the town, which was ruled by a provisional government;
but the Grand Duke later returned. In Rome, the Roman republic was
declared (with Giuseppe Mazzini as one of the
triumviri). Rome was attacked by French troops, and Giuseppe
Garibaldi's forces, after a fierce restistance, had to
surrender. the republic being abolished with the return of the
pope. Venice, after an
extraordinary long resistance, had also to surrender to the
Austrians due to famine and a cholera epidemic.

The
second independence war

Victor Emmanuel II in about 1861, from a photograph by the French
photographer, André Adolphe Eugene Disderi

In 1859 Emperor Napoleon III and Camillo Cavour, the prime
minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia, signed a treaty of alliance
against Austria: France would help Sardinia to fight against
Austria and Sardinia, in return, would give Nice and Savoy to
France. In the same year Austria started a war with Sardinia.
French and Sardinian armies defeated the Austrians in the battles
of Palestro (30 May), Montebello, Magenta (4
June) and Solferino (21
June) and took Milan. The German states, however, forced Napoleon
to stop the war, and he signed an armistice with Austria at
Villafranca. The Kingdom of
Lombardy (Milan was its capital) was transferred to France,
which gave it to Sardinia.

After the truce of Villafranca rebellions started in northern
Italian states. Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany and duke Francis V of Modena escaped from their
countries. People of Tuscany, Modena and Parma invited king Victor Emmanuel II of
Sardinia to rule over them. Napoleon III was afraid of being
regarded as a supporter of a revolution, so he forced Victor
Emmanuel to relinquish the power over those states; however, in
1860 Cavour convinced the emperor to change his mind. Tuscany,
Modena, Bologna and Parma decided in a plebiscite to join
Sardinia.

In 1860 the Kingdom of Two
Sicilies was invaded by a volunteer army, known as I Mille,
led by Giuseppe Garibaldi's and financed by Piedmont and United
Kingdom. In the subsequent campaign he defeated the army of the
Sicilian king, Ferdinand II, in the battles of Calatafimi and
Volturno. In 1861 a plebiscite in Naples and on Sicily decided for
unification to Sardinia. As a result, Victor Emmanuel was crowned
king of Italy. Finally, the fortress of Gaeta was taken and Ferdinand II escaped to Rome,
the only remaining land in Italy (together with Veneto) not part of the new kingdom.